1 John 3:1-7; Acts 3:12-20a
April 22, 2012
© 2012
I.
During Lent we focused our attention on our personal spiritual lives, our individual relationships with Jesus. Between now and Pentecost, May 27, we will be listening for the voice of God in 1 John and Acts to discern how 1st Christian Church of Duncanville can live as a community of Jesus’ resurrection in the 21st century. To what mission is God calling you? How can you organize and mobilize to pursue that mission?
A.
The April 2 cover of Newsweek featured a column by Andrew Sullivan. Though not in the text of his column, the catch-line for the cover was “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus.” Sullivan asserts the obvious that “Christianity is in crisis.” “It is no surprise that the fastest-growing segment of belief among the young is atheism. … Nor is it a shock that so many have turned away from organized Christianity toward ‘spirituality.’ … The thirst for God is still there. How could it not be, when the profoundest human questions – Why does the universe exist rather than nothing? How did humanity come to be on this remote blue speck of a planet? What happens to us after death? – remain as pressing as and mysterious as they’ve always been?” Though probably not what most would consider an orthodox believer, Sullivan is not an opponent looking to undermine Christian faith. He writes, “Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection – and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday, … how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines” does not matter “if you do not live as these doctrines demand.”
B.
As I have read the passages from Acts we will be looking at in the next few weeks, I have concluded that in those first weeks and months after Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church faced conditions very similar to what we face today. Though they still considered themselves Jewish, studied in synagogues and worshipped at the Jerusalem Temple, the whole context had changed, and they were trying to figure out where they fit. They were a misunderstood minority that often provoked hostility from both religious and civic leaders. Made up of people from all over the Mediterranean world, they were multi-lingual, multi-cultural and to some extent even multi-ethnic. The Apostles were largely laboring folk from rural Galilee who were now based in the urban core of cosmopolitan Jerusalem. They had Jesus’ example and teaching. They had the Holy Spirit, but they had little if any structure or organization. They were making it up as they went.
C.
My friends, so are we! The present transition of 1st Christian Church of Duncanville is a microcosm of what the whole Church (at least in the West) is facing in the 21st century. Duncanville and the surrounding post-suburban communities have become multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. A shrinking minority of people under 50 have any kind of religious or Christian experience. With meager misinformation, many echo the Newsweek cover: “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus.” To the extent that we are perceived as preserving the church as an institution rather than following Jesus, we will be written off. But if we can demonstrate the practical love of Jesus and engage people in exploring life’s huge, transcendent questions, a new era of mission and spiritual vitality opens up for us.
D.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
II.
Several years ago Candy and I worshipped with an African-American congregation whose pastor was a friend. As a visiting minister, I was seated on the chancel. The woman guest preacher spoke on the healing of the lame man at the Temple from Acts 3:1-11. She wore a pulpit robe and spike heels. Her theme line was “Comin’ in limpin’ – goin’ out leapin’!” Every time she said “leapin’” she’d jump and click her heels together. And every time, I held my breath afraid she’d catch one of those spike heels in the hem of her robe. But she never did.
A.
Though the text says the lame man was carried to the Temple steps since he couldn’t even limp, the preacher captured something of the energy of that event. In the 1st century, dignified Jewish men didn’t run anywhere, especially not in the hallowed halls of the Temple. But with the man they recognized as the lame beggar leaping and praising God, people came running to see for themselves. In Acts 3:12-20a Peter does an impromptu reprise of his Pentecost sermon. [Tell passage.]
April 22, 2012
© 2012
I.
During Lent we focused our attention on our personal spiritual lives, our individual relationships with Jesus. Between now and Pentecost, May 27, we will be listening for the voice of God in 1 John and Acts to discern how 1st Christian Church of Duncanville can live as a community of Jesus’ resurrection in the 21st century. To what mission is God calling you? How can you organize and mobilize to pursue that mission?
A.
The April 2 cover of Newsweek featured a column by Andrew Sullivan. Though not in the text of his column, the catch-line for the cover was “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus.” Sullivan asserts the obvious that “Christianity is in crisis.” “It is no surprise that the fastest-growing segment of belief among the young is atheism. … Nor is it a shock that so many have turned away from organized Christianity toward ‘spirituality.’ … The thirst for God is still there. How could it not be, when the profoundest human questions – Why does the universe exist rather than nothing? How did humanity come to be on this remote blue speck of a planet? What happens to us after death? – remain as pressing as and mysterious as they’ve always been?” Though probably not what most would consider an orthodox believer, Sullivan is not an opponent looking to undermine Christian faith. He writes, “Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection – and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday, … how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines” does not matter “if you do not live as these doctrines demand.”
B.
As I have read the passages from Acts we will be looking at in the next few weeks, I have concluded that in those first weeks and months after Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church faced conditions very similar to what we face today. Though they still considered themselves Jewish, studied in synagogues and worshipped at the Jerusalem Temple, the whole context had changed, and they were trying to figure out where they fit. They were a misunderstood minority that often provoked hostility from both religious and civic leaders. Made up of people from all over the Mediterranean world, they were multi-lingual, multi-cultural and to some extent even multi-ethnic. The Apostles were largely laboring folk from rural Galilee who were now based in the urban core of cosmopolitan Jerusalem. They had Jesus’ example and teaching. They had the Holy Spirit, but they had little if any structure or organization. They were making it up as they went.
C.
My friends, so are we! The present transition of 1st Christian Church of Duncanville is a microcosm of what the whole Church (at least in the West) is facing in the 21st century. Duncanville and the surrounding post-suburban communities have become multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. A shrinking minority of people under 50 have any kind of religious or Christian experience. With meager misinformation, many echo the Newsweek cover: “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus.” To the extent that we are perceived as preserving the church as an institution rather than following Jesus, we will be written off. But if we can demonstrate the practical love of Jesus and engage people in exploring life’s huge, transcendent questions, a new era of mission and spiritual vitality opens up for us.
D.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
II.
Several years ago Candy and I worshipped with an African-American congregation whose pastor was a friend. As a visiting minister, I was seated on the chancel. The woman guest preacher spoke on the healing of the lame man at the Temple from Acts 3:1-11. She wore a pulpit robe and spike heels. Her theme line was “Comin’ in limpin’ – goin’ out leapin’!” Every time she said “leapin’” she’d jump and click her heels together. And every time, I held my breath afraid she’d catch one of those spike heels in the hem of her robe. But she never did.
A.
Though the text says the lame man was carried to the Temple steps since he couldn’t even limp, the preacher captured something of the energy of that event. In the 1st century, dignified Jewish men didn’t run anywhere, especially not in the hallowed halls of the Temple. But with the man they recognized as the lame beggar leaping and praising God, people came running to see for themselves. In Acts 3:12-20a Peter does an impromptu reprise of his Pentecost sermon. [Tell passage.]
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.17“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.19Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
B.
Peter was quick to say that he and John had no special power or piety to make the man walk. The jumbled language of verse 16 makes clear that it was neither their faith nor the lame man’s faith that healed him but the name of Jesus itself. Faith is confidence in the name of Jesus, not a way we manipulate it. Peter is also quick to identify Jesus as the servant of the God of their ancestors.
C.
The source of this new, still not completely defined or understood movement is the work of the same God who called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Peter’s call for repentance is not so much about taking responsibility for the death of Jesus as it is a call to surrender self-righteousness. The wiping out of sins unlocks the floodgates of refreshment. Unlike the people who had joyfully
welcomed Jesus a few weeks earlier on Palm Sunday, this is the Temple crowd deeply invested in preserving their stultified traditions and power. Peter is inviting them to welcome the same transforming renewal by the Holy Spirit the disciples had received on Pentecost. This refreshment is not generated by religious practices but by receiving it from the presence of the Lord.
D.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
III.
I know scholars have poured a lot of energy into discussing and debating the authorship of the New Testament books ascribed to John. But I don’t want that to distract us from what I believe is an important connection between this story in Acts and what we read in 1 John. John was there with Peter at the Temple but did not seem to say much. We do know that a community of disciples grew up around John and his teaching. We also know that 1 John was written several decades after the episode in the Temple and the other formative events we read about in the first part of Acts. I suggest that they are a maturing reflection on what was learned in those early days.
A.
God’s love is at the center of that learning. God has loved us enough to claim us as his children. God’s love in Christ has taken away our sin. Just as Peter said God wipes out the sins of those who repent, John is affirming something much stronger than forgiveness. God’s love is the power that removes our sin, abolishes our sin.
B.
In fact, God’s love is so powerful it promised that we will become like Jesus in his purity and righteousness when we see him. John is making an obvious reference to the future appearance of Jesus at the climax of human history. We can’t come close to imagining not only what Jesus will be much less how we will be like him when we see him as he is. Perhaps John’s experience of seeing Jesus at his Transfiguration gives a bit of a hint.
C.
But there is also a present reality. As we look at Jesus, God lovingly shapes us to become more and more like Jesus. Notice that the language here is indicative not imperative. John is not saying, “Look at Jesus hard enough to become like him.” No! he is saying, “When you look at Jesus, the Father will make you like him.”
1.
We look at Jesus when we read the Bible, when we pray, when we worship him together.
2.
The late Russian Orthodox archbishop Anthony Bloom tells of an eighteenth-century priest who once asked an aged peasant what he was doing during the hours and hours he spent sitting in the chapel. The old man replied, “I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy.” (Soul Feast by Marjorie J. Thompson, page 45)
D.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
IV.
A.
God’s love is at the center of that learning. God has loved us enough to claim us as his children. God’s love in Christ has taken away our sin. Just as Peter said God wipes out the sins of those who repent, John is affirming something much stronger than forgiveness. God’s love is the power that removes our sin, abolishes our sin.
B.
In fact, God’s love is so powerful it promised that we will become like Jesus in his purity and righteousness when we see him. John is making an obvious reference to the future appearance of Jesus at the climax of human history. We can’t come close to imagining not only what Jesus will be much less how we will be like him when we see him as he is. Perhaps John’s experience of seeing Jesus at his Transfiguration gives a bit of a hint.
C.
But there is also a present reality. As we look at Jesus, God lovingly shapes us to become more and more like Jesus. Notice that the language here is indicative not imperative. John is not saying, “Look at Jesus hard enough to become like him.” No! he is saying, “When you look at Jesus, the Father will make you like him.”
1.
We look at Jesus when we read the Bible, when we pray, when we worship him together.
2.
The late Russian Orthodox archbishop Anthony Bloom tells of an eighteenth-century priest who once asked an aged peasant what he was doing during the hours and hours he spent sitting in the chapel. The old man replied, “I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy.” (Soul Feast by Marjorie J. Thompson, page 45)
D.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
IV.
Having been with you for almost 8 months now, I am convinced that God does not want 1st Christian Church of Duncanville to go limpin’ into the future. God has a leapin’ future for you. Maybe you don’t want to tell your children to start running in church, but loving in the name of Jesus will bring people running to church.
A.
The power is in the name of Jesus, not in your programs, not in your new pastor, not even in your faith. Look at Jesus! The more clearly you see him, the more the Father will make you like him. I love Paul’s line in 1 Corinthians 14:25. When an outsider enters your worship “that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’” In our time of skepticism and limpin’ congregations, I might be happy if an outsider at least said, “those people think God is really among them.”
B.
The more like Jesus we become, the more the love of God will overflow from us. Some of that overflow is between us. In John 13:35 Jesus said that people would know we were his disciples by our love for each other. Few things are as damaging to the witness of the Gospel as division and animosity between Christians. I believe that applies at a personal level within congregations as well as between branches of the Church. But Jesus also made it clear that God’s love has no boundaries. It is not limited to those who are like us; it is especially for those who are not only unlike us but are hostile to us – our enemies.
C.
St. Benedict spoke of conversion of life not as an event that marked our entry into Christ’s grace, but as a daily process of being made new by the presence of Christ. This is the repentance by which sins are wiped out. It is not groveling in guilt but exulting in grace! It opens the floodgates of refreshing, not just for individuals but for the whole congregation as a community of Jesus’
resurrection.
A.
The power is in the name of Jesus, not in your programs, not in your new pastor, not even in your faith. Look at Jesus! The more clearly you see him, the more the Father will make you like him. I love Paul’s line in 1 Corinthians 14:25. When an outsider enters your worship “that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’” In our time of skepticism and limpin’ congregations, I might be happy if an outsider at least said, “those people think God is really among them.”
B.
The more like Jesus we become, the more the love of God will overflow from us. Some of that overflow is between us. In John 13:35 Jesus said that people would know we were his disciples by our love for each other. Few things are as damaging to the witness of the Gospel as division and animosity between Christians. I believe that applies at a personal level within congregations as well as between branches of the Church. But Jesus also made it clear that God’s love has no boundaries. It is not limited to those who are like us; it is especially for those who are not only unlike us but are hostile to us – our enemies.
C.
St. Benedict spoke of conversion of life not as an event that marked our entry into Christ’s grace, but as a daily process of being made new by the presence of Christ. This is the repentance by which sins are wiped out. It is not groveling in guilt but exulting in grace! It opens the floodgates of refreshing, not just for individuals but for the whole congregation as a community of Jesus’
resurrection.
IV.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
As God’s loved children looking at Jesus, we become like him. Refreshed in his name, God’s love overflows our life together.
No comments:
Post a Comment